“The Old Oak”, interview with director Ken Loach and screenwriter Paul Laverty

November 14, 2023

Director and screenwriter talk about "The Old Oak", screening in competition at Cannes Film Festival 2023

"The Old Oak", interview with director Ken Loach and screenwriter Paul Laverty Giulia Bianconi

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Sense of community, solidarity, humanity, mutual understanding and hope can help to overcome the gap that divides different people. After winning two Palms d’Or (for “The Wind That Shakes the Barley“ and “I, Daniel Blake“), Ken Loach has returned in competition at Festival de Cannes 2023 with “The Old Oak“, a political and social movie always written with Paul Laverty, and in Italian cinemas from November 16th distributed by Lucky Red.

Strength, solidarity, resistance, organization

During our meeting in Cannes, Loach said: “Strength, solidarity and resistance are words of our time. But there are other important words, such as organization. Without it we cannot win”.

Community forms are possibile

According to the director, 87 years old, “We live in a digital society that isolates us from each other and makes it difficult to create moments of solidarity. But community forms are possible, because the problems affect everyone”.

The important thing is to have hope

Loach and Laverty believe in hope, as we can see in “The Old Oak“: “Hope is a political question. If people have hope it means they believe they can change things. If people don’t have hope, they are cynical, feel weak and desperate”.

Plot

The Old Oak is a special place. Not only is it the last pub standing, it is the only remaining public space where people can meet in a once thriving mining community that has now fallen on hard times after 30 years of decline. TJ Ballantyne (Dave Turner) the landlord hangs on to The Old Oak by his fingertips, and his hold is endangered even more when The Old Oak becomes contested territory after the arrival of Syrian refugees who are placed in the village. In an unlikely friendship TJ encounters a young Syrian, Yara (Ebla Mari) with her camera. Can they find a way for the two communities to understand each other? So unfolds a deeply moving drama about loss, fear and the difficulty of finding hope.

Written by: Giulia Bianconi

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